Gentle cycle.

My washing machine sounds like a radial arm saw. Each time the spin cycle comes on the granite foundations of the flat and I shudder in unison. My delicates may never forgive me for this three months. Gone is the original shape of all my t-shirts.

I called former UK resident, Julie, hoping for a smidge of insight on the matter.
“Jules, I can’t find the gentle cycle on the laundry machine.”
“That’s ‘cause there is no such thing as a gentle cycle in Britain.”
[stunned silence]
“Don’t put anything you like in the washer. It’ll get shredded to bits.”

Crap.

It seems the British compensate for their clothing-abuse by sparing it the cruelty of a dryer. They put up with stiff towels, clothespin creases and having whole rooms of their houses commandeered by drying racks for days on end. It takes a full week to do the previous week’s washing.

Perhaps I’m spoiled?

The ins and outs of Scottish life are starting to feel commonplace, but I may never get used to pulling on socks that feel like cardboard.

**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****
I'm still plagued by this stupid cold, but I sucked it up once again to have dinner with six new friends last night (thanks to fellow newly-weds Iain and Suzi for their hospitality and amazing M&S cookery). It's amazing that even across an ocean we've already managed to find a great assortment of unique personalities that we connect with.

As we strolled home at 1am, parting ways with our neighbours Claire and Stephen, Dean and I reflected on how blessed we feel since arriving here... So much so that we're tossing around the idea of lengthening our next stay. We'll see which gorgeous rainy city holds our hearts the strongest in the end.

Hefty Jazz, Runny Nose

Work has been slow the last few days but I’ve kept busy — keeping the dust in our flat at bay (and thus my allergies also) sometimes feels like a full time job, but I’ve also been doing lots of writing, walking, and window shopping.

The mental conversion from pounds to dollars (which I still do, in spite of warnings that it will eventually drive me mad) has sucked much of the fun from actual shopping... but then, this is me we're talking about, so i'm sure I'll get over it soon enough.

Wednesday, when I came home from work I was all smiles at the arrival of my first piece of international mail (woot!) I then enjoyed a leisurely afternoon coffee with my friend (and newest commenter), Claire.

Claire is amazing not just because she’s a 24-year-old doctor, but because she and her sister Suzanne share with me the remarkable gift of being able to talk nonstop and still listen to everything the other person is saying — and it baffles their husbands just as much as it does my own! Yes, I may have found kindred spirits in Scotland.

I’m sick today, and so I spent the morning in bed with Elizabeth Bennett after yesterday’s night out on the town. At the end of the day Dean was given tickets to a performance at the Aberdeen Music Hall. It gave me an excuse to finally wear heels in this cobblestone town and we enjoyed the jazz stylings of Mr. Hefty Jazz himself, Keith Smith (who?) and some soulful southern gospel by Jan Harrington. We were suitably impressed until Hefty, while affecting his best Louis Armstrong growl, forgot the words to “What a Wonderful World,” more than once. Priceless.

Front Lawn Fresh Cuts vol.II

your mid-week source from the Granite City

On the Playlist: Band of Horses' Everything All the Time

On the Reading List: A Diamond as Big as the Ritz, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Current Obsession: Brooklyn, as usual. So I was thrilled when I found this line of dishes and tote bags.

Design of the Times: Helvetica wall panels ...what better way to teach your kids their numbers and classic type faces.

Have an ’Art: Secret wall tattoos. Roadies and band members around the world have become more refined in their hotel room vandalism.

Blog Log: currently enjoying some of the blogs at Domino Mag, and in particular this account of an NYC reno, start to finish.

Hipsters on the Web: those crazy kids at Maisonneuve hired literary critic Celia Lloyd to report on the Toronto Film Fest. With a hearty dose of salt this becomes an entertaining confessional.

Crisp of the Week: McCoy’s Asian Rib [rating: a generous 2 out of 5 stars]

Scot Slang of the Week: haberdashery — anything to do with mending or sewing (created quite a bit of confusions when Dean and I were searching for coat hangers in John Lewis the other week).

Decorator’s Challenge: Plaid fleece blanket and two cream throw pillows have warmed up the lonely couch in our living room. Total £12.

Insider Scoop: A swede is a turnip.

Countdown From: 26 and 17 years today respectively, since my best friend Jules and my sis-in-law Jill made their earthly debuts. Drop by and wish the both the happiest of b.days.

To Do List: Figure out how fit in two families and two circles of friends in three Canadian cities over the Christmas holidays… and then book the appropriate flights out of Scotland.

a Scotch day out

Lorah can visually account for our Friday pub night at the Queen Vic (which, I'm pleased to say, included nearly everyone we known in Aberdeen!) and some of the other photographic nonsense that was got up to on Sunday and Monday.

But on this side of Hadrian's Wall I can do my own part. Saturday was a full day of Scottish goodness, starting with a ride through the countryside which landed us near the town of Alford (pronounced "Afford" since they like to make everything more difficult here) and the 13th century ruins of Kildrummy Castle.

Kildrummy, we learned, from the Historic Scotland ticket saleswoman, has something of a treacherous history... torched by a servant, seized through forced marriage, and finally dismantled during a Jacobite rebellion. We were awed by what remains and our cameras got a workout.







We'd already paid our entrance fee to the castle, so it seemed a shame to have to pay another four quid to visit the castle gardens. Fortunately we found an easilly hopped fence (they were practically INVITING us to see it for free, really) and spent another hour admiring the grounds, which brought me back to pages of Frances Hodson Burnett.







To appease our consciences we paid a visit to the Kildrummy Castle H'teel for afternoon tea. Maybe it was just the hunger after a full morning and climbing and chatting, or maybe it was the fresh cream and berry compote, perhaps it was the spectacular view or delightful company, but scones have never tasted so good.





On a whim while driving home, we took a side road to visit a distant church-yard on a hill. We were well rewarded. I figure the church yard is so much higher than the surrounding pastures because of so many generations burried there... no one else liked my conclusion as much ;)

[the bottommost photo is for our Scottish friends who have kindly informed me which words are not appropriate for use in mixed (or any) company.]

bank holiday.

we have a visitor for the long-weekend (in case my previous ten mentions of it were missed). For us this has meant uncommon fun and a freakish amount of photos taken.

There is still a day of fun and a deep-fried Mars bar to be had, so I'll save the full report and photos for tomorrow.

at ease.

Genious husband fixed the broken washing machine this morning (part cause of yesterday's malaise). Clean laundry at last.

Last night my mood was boosted by a phone call from home, plus pizza and tallboys with our friend Manos. Topics of Christianity, Greek tradition, and what should be the standard in a "furnished" flat gave us plenty of fodder for discussion, making for a good end to a bad day.

So, it's Friday and this weekend has been much anticipated.

acclimatizing

In the grand British tradition of home-naming, Dean decided that our Rosemount flat ought to be so endowed. Granted, our three-room abode is hardly manor-like, but given the hard time I'm having making it feel like home, I agreed a name might be just the thing.

The moment of Dean's inspiration came when we passed a classic granite Aberdeen home named Glencairn. Consequently he has it in his head that our flat name must incorporate the word "glen" (valley) but glenregier, of course, sounds ridiculous.

The compromise? Glengier. It has sort of a scottish ring to it, n'est ce pas?

Now with a suitable name in place, so it seems a suitable invitation is in order...

To all our friends and family at home and abroad:
there's a pull-out couch with your name on it at Glengier.

**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****

Now about Aberdeen. In our two weeks here I've observed some quirky things about this town, but the longer I'm here the more normal they seem, so I'd best address them now or they'll hardly seem worth mentioning soon.

here goes:

1. orchids—everyone has them. EVERYONE. I asked a local (and orchid owner) about it and it seems they are just trendy. but seriously, how many people at home have orchids? two?

2. hairdressers—likewise, they are everywhere. In the ten minute walk into town I pass approximately a dozen of them. Similar numbers of letting agents and second-hand stores dominate this city.

3. popcorn—conversely, I can't find it anywhere. boo.

4. 80s hairdo's and leopard dye-jobs—both proliferate. on women young and old. with so many stylists on hand, surely you could update your look?

**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****

Today I am battling writer's block, hating our flat, and missing my hair. Good thing Lorah will here tomorrow.

Front Lawn Fresh Cuts vol.I

your source from the Granite City

On the Playlist: Rogue Wave’s Love’s Lost Guarantee

On the Reading List: Leah McLaren’s The Continuity Girl (autographed edition, picked up at YVR)

Current Obsession: Penguins—Britain’s answer to Tim-tams—accompanying my daily coffee

Design of the Times: Design icon Terence Conran’s astonishingly affordable line of kitchen products for Sainsbury’s has me drooling, and buying measuring cups in spite of the fact that I don't bake.

Have an ’Art: Miniature prints that make original art suddenly affordable

Blog Log: UnderConsideration' design forum, Speakup

Hipsters on the Web: The Empty Vessel Project (go to flickr site to see tugboat graveyard)

Crisp of the Week: Sensations Sweet Thai Chilli [rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars]

Scot Slang of the Week: Banoffee — banana and toffee, obviously.

Insider Scoop: The Bridge of Don, a suburb on the outskirts of Aberdeen is, in fact, the largest suburb in Europe

Countdown To: THREE DAYS ‘til Lorah visits from Newcastle. At last I’ll do some shopping and maybe pay a visit to St. Andrew’s or Slains Castle

To Do List: Decorate! Suggestions for simple/affordable ways to smarten up a bare-walled flat are welcome!

coming soon...

You loved Mingin' Mondays from London Town.
You liked Hump Days in Harbour City.
You still love Friday ForPlay from the 'Couv.
And you mourned the loss of Dr. Ransom's "goodies"

It's time celebrate the arrival of a brand new weekly on the blog.

Check back tomorrow for the launch of The Front Lawn's Midweek Fresh Cuts straight to you from the Granite City.

the S's that make Scotland just swell

Sun
Welcome to "Fresher's Week"—the halls of the medical building are teeming with giddy first-year students sussing out their first day of school. I feel like sitting them down and warning them, "Don't be fooled, the sun won't last." But I'm soaking it in nonetheless.

Sushi
With the exception of some chewy California rolls, Friday night’s sushi excursion was a huge success—great salmon, good edamame, and at least one Asian person on staff to lend it a semblance of authenticity (okay, so he was Chinese). Unfortunately we were erroneously informed that no one tips in Aberdeen, so we may never be able to go back...

Supper was followed by a visit to the local indie cinema for a viewing of Little Miss Sunshine—where I laughed harder than I have since Seth Cohen climbed onto the roof of his house wearing a Spiderman mask.

Sights
Saturday we loaded our day packs and hopped a bus to Stonehaven to enjoy ocean, castle, fog and our first authentic visit to the “chipper” for some local haddock.










Social life & freakishly small Scotland
A fast clip to Gerrard Street Baptist landed us there five minutes early—enough time to get chatting to a pair of newly-weds beside us, Iain and Suzi. Incidentally, Iain has just started working at the church and (it seems) they are two of the most connected people in Aberdeen.

At the end of the service we met at least a dozen fabulous people, so we stuck around for lunch, and then accepted an invite to an city-wide worship event in the evening.

The world seems small when you sing the same songs in Scotland that you do at home, but it seemed especially small when I met a girl at the end of evening who’d spent her gap year traveling across Canada. Surprise, surprise: she spent a chunk of it in Langley. Much more of a shock however is that in Glasgow she was neighbour to Caroline Campbell—whose husband Iain I’ve worked with for two years at TWU!

This afternoon I’m having coffee with Suzi and her lovely sister Claire—a major answer to my prayers that I’d find some great girls to hang out with in Aberdeen.

I think a change'll do you good

A few nights ago chatting with my mom she commented that I sounded happy. This probably comes as little surprise to most of you, but my mom knows better than most that I am prone to lows as often as highs.

of course her comment has me reflecting.

Writing in my journal this morning I determined that I'm happy for two reasons:
1) because I thrive on change. I always have. I was apprehensive before this move, but I shouldn't have been. New sights and smells are among my favourite things

and 2) because I have every reason to be happy right now.

I've been feeling just plain grattitude this week. I went out on a limb and came here without a work visa, and God has provided me with great freelance opportunities—potentially enough to pay for all our groceries and touristy fun. I have three months of quality time with my new husband, and every day I see our friendship deepending (that's one of my fave parts). We're in a gorgeous European city with a million things to do all for the fee of a bus ticket. And one of my favourite people is only three hours away. Just swell.

what else?

Last night's microwave pickup was successful—except for Dean who had to carry it more than a mile (I just wasn't strong enough) and now all we're missing is a toaster.

Ugly weather might abort our original bike-riding plans for the weekend, but fortunately it's cheaper to ride the bus so we'll do just that to the nearby town of Stonehaven (supposedly where the deep-fried marsbar was invented) and Dunnottar Castle. Stay tuned for photos on Monday.

Fake pop stars with global appeal

Last time I reflected on some differences between Canada and Scotland. The thing is, however, some things ARE universal... some of them bad: the prevalence of leggings and mini jean skirts for example. But many of them are just delightful: most notably the reliability of popular culture.

Before Dean and I left for Aberdeen (and it's worth mentioning we've now been here a week) we were totally sucked in—albeit two years late—to the television sensation LOST. Enough to have me making trips to Blockbuster every other day to drop another 6 bucks on a subsequent disc.

We finished season 1 a week before our departure, but on the plane ride over I was still nudging Dean asking, "What do you think they'll find down the hatch?" and "Do you think it's the 'Others' who kidnapped Walt?"

The most pervasive reference, however, was that disgustingly catchy Drive Shaft tune to which we all only know one line. Dean hasn't stopped singing it for two weeks.

So imagine our glee on Sunday while walking through the University campus we passed a group of students and suddenly were met with the chorus: "YOU ALL EVERYBODY!" We both stopped dead in our tracks and burst into giggles.

Much thanks is due to Fox or WB or whatever producer has managed to be so dang pervasive.

**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****

In other news, it's raining today which makes Aberdeen feel much like Vancouver. This also happens to be the day I arranged to carry a microwave across town from its previous owner's flat to our own.

I even went umbrella shopping yesterday but was too cheap to drop 13pounds on one at Sainsbury's. I was not too cheap, however to spend 2.70 on a copy of Marie Claire that came with a complimentary copy of Lauren Weisberger's Everyone Worth Knowing. Priorities, you know.

my clever disguise

These past two days I've been posing as a med student to make use of free wireless at the University's medical library. So far it's gone off without a hitch, so I guess I've found myself a new office. Before you know it I'll be pitching articles to Popular Science. It's convenient because I can take lunch breaks with my hubby who works down the hall. Today he was even so chivalrous as to take me out for coffee!

Cultural differences are becoming more aparent daily... like yesterday on our noon-time stroll when Dean and I walked by the pre-natal clinic on the hospital campus. Here it's called the "ante-natal clinic," but that isn't the anomaly. Rather, it was the three pregnant women each enjoying a smoke at the front door!

Not all differences are bad, however. For example I love having the laundry machine in the kitchen—I can do the wash and make supper at the same time. And electric showers mean you never have to worry about running out of hot water. Other great things? Free gifts with fashion magazines (books, bags, makeup, flip flops), affordable wine at the grocery store, and the most stunnig parks i've ever seen (Scots have a wonderful respect for a well-kept lawn).

Sure there are inconveninces, and I cringe every time i'm forced to throw recyclables into a garbage bin but all-in-all scotland is a-okay.

Reflections on crooked walking

In the past four (half)days, Dean and I have hoofed it all over the Granite City. I’m content with what I’ve seen.

While visiting Dean’s office on Friday I was witness to a debate over what’s the best neighbourhood in Aberdeen, and at this point I can educatedly say that Rosemount is it. Nicest park, best grocery, convenient coffee shops, requisite little Italian spot, 10 minutes to downtown, the hospital, the big box stores, our selected church, and 20 minutes to the ocean. Lucky for us.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that we haven’t had our fair share of curious encounters. In fact, in two days we’ve seen a disproportionate amount of crazy old people— first a man accosted us while crossing the street, grabbed Dean’s arm while emphatically shouting in his indiscernible Aberdonian accent (sounded like curses to me, but who can tell?), then this morning a gent was sweeping the same 5-inch patch of road over and over and over and over. And finally on our way home this evening we turned a corner to find a man waiting for the bus in trousers and a neck tie… nothing else.

And some photos from the past week:

Our last Canadian meal (thank you White Spot)

Air Canada comfort
Almost a full moon—enough to reflect off the icy landscape below

39 Wallfield Cres

two floors up, our front door

The yellow kitchen and our first meal—chicken tikka masala

view of the city from the kitchen window

Hot guy at the beach

the Regiers, enjoying the ocean air

spotty and spottier

Internet problems abound. what can you expect for free. Sorry the emails are few and far between--our free wireless will only let me access select pages not including gmail nor hotmail. Argh!

oh well, off to my first Scottish church service. we'll pray for better reception :)

settled and shorn

**edited: scroll down**

First full day in Aberdeen has come to an end... well "full," waking up at 2pm and readying for bed (momentarily) at 9pm, may not count for a full day, but jetlag does its work.

We discovered that flying together and having a shoulder/head to sleep on is a huge improvement over solo cross-continental travel. 14 hours is so much more bearable with a partner.

And equally lovely is being greeted in a foreign country by a local. Our friend Verity bravely packed us and all our luggage into her 2 door hatch back, brought us to our flat and even took us to buy groceries ($140 doesn't get you too far we discovered).

The flat is big and clean but sparse--a third floor walkup in a classic Aberdeen granite rowhouse-- so after our afternoon of touring the city (our neighbourhood, downtown, old aberdeen, the university) we spent some time tonight rearranging--and I am feeling more at home already. Major bonus is a spectacular view from our kitchen from which we can see tonight's full moon while we sip on a bottle of 4-pound Wolfblass Yellow Label :)

So that accounts for the "settled" portion of this post. The "shorn" portion? well Deano and I both got haircuts. His is an "Uncle Karan special" buzzcut acquired during our visit to Swift Current, and mine is a messy chin-length number picked up during our 20-hour stop at home. Last time my hair was this short a Korean surfer cut it under a palm three with a pair of kitchen shears and men's briefs as a towel.

More description and some photos tomorrow. We've been lucky enough to pick up a neighbour's wireless signal but it's spotty at best.

We have a mailing address!
Dean & Amanda Regier
top floor right
35 Wallfield Cres
Aberdeen, AB25 2LB
Scotland, UK

**and we have a phone number! email me at thefrontlawn@gmail.com for the number.